


Heartshot

by gwyllion



Category: Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-07
Updated: 2011-02-07
Packaged: 2017-12-05 00:04:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/716591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwyllion/pseuds/gwyllion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Last Author Standing Prompt: Your character at ten years old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartshot

He wasn’t the sort of dog that you’d expect to run away, well fed and well played by the two brothers who took turns feeding him and throwing a ball for his entertainment. But run, he did, floppy ears the color of chestnuts, one larger than the other, streaming behind him like the tail of a kite taking off in the Wyoming wind.

“You’d better round him up. It’s time to go,” Pa said, glancing at the clouds that billowed dark on the horizon. He shouldered his .30-30 and swung open the Ford’s tailgate. The screech of metal pierced the stagnant summer air, calm before the impending storm.

Ennis turned his head toward the dog, streaking across the slashed line of the straight dirt road. He headed for the gully that marked the easement between two abandoned ranches. Settlers of yesterday shared the water source, but now the trickle had run dry with disuse. The first pellets of rain dropped like BBs, burying deep into the parched earth, disappearing in the hot dust before Ennis could decide whether they were rain or hail.

“Listen to Pa,” said K.E., pointing at the escaping pet, a blur of shaggy hair, sharp claws and teeth. “You’d best wrangle him before he gets too far.”

Ennis furrowed his brow and glared at his older brother, wishing for some miracle that would make K.E. be the younger sibling for a change. Then he’d see what it was like to take orders, to be forced to follow in the footsteps that didn’t quite fit, like trying to ram a .38 cartridge into a .22 barrel.

“Go ahead,” said K.E. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his tattered overalls and leaned against the truck door, no intention of moving, the sky growing darker by the minute. “Ain’t no telling what gets into that dog’s head when the wind kicks up.”

The hair on the back of Ennis’s neck prickled in the electric air. He worried his bottom lip with unbrushed teeth, at the thought of crossing into the fields on the other side of the road from where he stood.

If he had a choice, he’d rather stay with his Pa and brother on the side that felt safer, where they’d spent the whole morning. He stooped to pick up the dead rabbit that lay at his feet, his quarry from the target practice they had been taking on a warren that had invaded the bare field. While the boys took aim, their dog had been content to pounce on the pair of crows that alighted there in search of an easy dinner, the crops all gone to seed in the year that passed since the land became vacant. But now, something else caught the dog’s interest.

“Get him now, Ennis, or I’ll drive away and leave him here,” Pa yelled.

Ennis draped the carcass alongside the soft pelt of K.E.’s rabbit inside the truck bed, and took off running.

The ground slid beneath Ennis’s feet, the grains of rain-pocked dirt shifting with each footfall. His breath came hard. He chugged along, his arms pumping out a rhythm that made bullets of sweat trickle from the fringe of his hairline.

A clump of grass underfoot triggered a stumble. Ennis slowed to a jog, turning his head to watch his Pa and K.E. jump into the cab when a boom of thunder rocked the sky. Ahead of him, the dog scampered along the irrigation ditch, stopping to lap at the water that seeped over the slick canyon, already wet from what little rain had fallen.

Ennis’s feet came to a stop where the loose dirt ended and the smooth bedrock of the drainage began. He stood there for a moment, his arms dangling at his sides, chest heaving. His feet resisted forward motion, instead tracing half-circles through the sparse weedy growth.

“Come on,” he shouted to the dog, but the mongrel paid him no mind. He raised his head to look at Ennis with shifty eyes before he resumed licking at the wet runoff, his mismatched ears hanging forward to touch the ground.

A flash of lightning brightened the field. Ennis took a step forward and peered down the gully. The scoured rocks shone pink like they did on that day last year when Pa had brought him and K.E. here to show them Earl’s body that lay further down the embankment. He remembered Earl’s skin, riddled with gouges from the gravel that he’d been dragged across, dried blood flaking off in the breeze.

“He deserved what he got, for choosing the path he did,” Pa had said, squeezing a hand to each of his sons’ shoulders. “Best you boys think on it.”

Ennis had forgotten that this was the place, in the same way that youngsters remember the look and feel of someplace, without remembering the exact road they took to get there. He squinted through the clouded air, dense like gun smoke. He wondered what had happened to old Earl’s body. The once living flesh had probably been a meal for coyotes, the remains washed away by the rain and weather.

A gust of wind swept across the field, picking up dust and blasting Ennis’s exposed skin.

He considered ignoring the dog, and walking along the drainage to where he could get a glimpse of where Earl had lain.

The truck’s horn blared from the roadway, K.E. leaning over his father’s lap, laughing when Ennis jumped.

Ennis recoiled with the sound. Although he wondered deep what lay further down the gully, he didn’t need to revisit it today. There would be other days to make this discovery. There would be time enough to see where this path would lead. He’d try to avoid it then, too.

Ennis reached for the dog’s collar. “Let’s go,” he said, tugging the worn leather. The dog followed behind him as he trotted back to the truck.

**Author's Note:**

> Heartshot was written for Last Author Standing - 2011, which I won in the category of "Movies."


End file.
